Persian Cuisine A-Z
Read an A-Z listing of typical Iranian dishes and drinks.
A
Abgusht (literally "water meat"): For this dish fatty mutton on the bone is cooked with potatoes, chickpeas and white beans in a rich soup often fortified with tomato paste. It's eaten in stages with the soup served first with bread. You tear bread into small pieces and drop it into the rich broth and eat the soup-soaked morsels with a spoon.
Next, you eat the kubideh ("mash") which is the meat, taken off the bone and mashed with the pulses and potatos - again with bread.
Abgusht is always served with plentiful torshi (Iranian pickles) and often with piles of sabzi khordan ("fresh herbs").
Abgusht is truly working-class fare and can be made on the cheap using less meat and cheaper cuts. It's a stock option in bazaar canteens and teahouses where it is called dizi - the name given to the single-serving earthenware jug which the ingredients are cooked and served in. Alongside the dizi you get an empty bowl for your soup and a guskup, which is an uncomplicated metal club used to mash up your kubideh.
You can get a high class dizi sitting on Persian rugs and accompanied by traditional music at restaurants such as the Azari Traditional Teahouse in Tehran. Otherwise, look out for white-tiled eateries in any crowded centre where patrons are busily tearing bread and mashing meat.
D
Doogh is a drink made by blending natural yogurt and water. It's often left out for a couple of days so that the active yoghurt bacteria can add bubbles. The result is a surprisingly enjoyable "yoghurt soda". At home, doogh is often flavoured with dried mint, salt and pepper. Doogh is also commercially available alongside soft drinks in every corner shop and super market. Traditionally, the time to drink doogh is after a heavy meal (which in Iran is quite often) of kabab, abgusht or other rich, meaty fare. Popular myth associates drinking doogh after lunch with a long nap and it is true that drinking doogh lowers the blood pressure.
K
Kale pache: Loosely translated as "heads and hooves" this is one culinary institution that the author is yet to personally investigate. Kalle Pache restaurants are easily identified by shop signs depicting cute young lambs gamboling in alpine settings, an image which belies the nature of the dish being served - essentially boiled sheep heads. Brains, eyeballs and tongue are all on offer, vigorously boiled in large open vats and served with lemon. This hearty dish is popular for breakfast, especially with friends after a trip to the mountains or a night of partying.
S
Sabzi khordan: - literally meaning "eating greens" - is the term given to coarsely chopped fresh herbs served at the dinner table. Chefs will be familiar with many of the varieties - na'ana (mint), jafari (flat parsley), piazche (salad onions) and toropche (radishes) for instance. A mix of any or all of these herbs is served in high piles at the dinner table for you to serve yourself with hands.
Sabzi khordan is a healthy and tasty accompaniment to traditional Iranian meals such as abgusht and is a lively alternative to a regular green salad.
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